Apple CEO John Ternus: 'We don't want to ship AI for AI's sake'
In his first big interview as CEO, Ternus said people shouldn't have to think about whether AI is behind a feature.
Apple will use AI to improve its products but does not "want to ship AI for AI's sake," new CEO John Ternus told WIRED in an interview published Oct. 30. Ternus, 51, a 25-year Apple veteran, has led the Cupertino company for less than two months.
WIRED's Steven Levy laid out two views of Apple. One says Apple fell behind rivals after struggling to improve Siri, its voice assistant. The other says Apple is wise to skip the huge cost of building its own top AI model and instead add AI quietly into its devices, with a focus on privacy.
Apple Intelligence is Apple's name for its AI features. The first ones arrived in October 2024 in a free software update for newer iPhones, iPads and Macs, Apple said at the time. They rewrite and proofread text, summarize emails and notifications, and remove unwanted objects from photos. Apple says many of the AI models run on the device itself, while harder requests go to Apple's own servers, which it calls Private Cloud Compute; users can also choose to send some questions to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
"Everyone has an opinion—I really like where we're at," Ternus said. "When we're doing it right, people won't have to think about whether it was AI that made this happen or more traditional software."
Ternus also rejected the idea that AI agents, programs that do tasks for users, will replace today's apps. Making products is "a deeply human and personal thing," he said. Asked about AI regulation, he said Apple's focus is keeping products secure and protecting users' information.
Source: WIRED, Oct. 30, 2026, TechCrunch, Oct. 31, 2026 and Apple, Oct. 28, 2024.